This article was produced for the Ranger magazine which is published monthly for members of the British Free Range Egg Producers Association. You can get more details of the association and membership from www.theranger.co.uk
There are reports that buzzards are becoming an increasing threat to free range flocks. Some egg producers have reported more frequent attacks on their hens. Others may not be aware of the problem - mistakenly blaming attacks on other predators.
But Scottish farmer Roy Kerr says that buzzards are now a much greater threat to free range flocks than foxes. Roy says he lost 42 hens to buzzards last year. Only three birds were taken by foxes.
"Foxes are fairly easy to control. There is nothing you can do about buzzards. They are protected as birds of prey - and quite rightly so in some ways - but it has gone too far.
Numbers are growing rapidly. They are affecting the smaller bird population and they are certainly taking hens. If you have hens and you have buzzards in your area, you are almost certainly losing birds to them. I am sure of it," he said.
A dramatic increase in the number of buzzards in the United Kingdom has been hailed as a huge success by conservationists. Just 20 years ago they were extremely rare - their numbers having been severely reduced by farmers and gamekeepers who recognised them as a danger to livestock. Now, it seems, the threat is back. Over the last two decades buzzards have spread out from their remaining enclaves in the west of the country. Birds can now be found in significant numbers across eastern England, too - from Lincolnshire and East Anglia down to Kent. The buzzard has now overtaken the kestrel as the country’s commonest bird of prey.
The British Trust for Ornithology describes the recovery of the buzzard as "amazing" but others see the bird as a very real threat. In Scotland, gamekeepers blame the buzzard for the deaths of thousands of partridges, pheasants and waders such as curlews and plovers. A director of the Scottish Countryside Alliance wants a change in the law to allow landowners to kill birds of prey when they grow out of control. Tim Baynes, moorlands director of the Alliance, said, "It’s an increasing problem as the number of buzzards and birds of prey goes up. We won’t notice it for a couple of years and by the time it’s obvious, it’s too late."
He said that although it was possible for landowners to apply for a licence to control birds of prey to protect other species, none had ever been granted. Usually, rigorous evidence spanning five years was needed before such a licence would be granted. Mr Baynes thinks the lack of flexibility in the law is leading some landowners to feel forced to take illegal action. "Whenever people have applied for a licence to control buzzards they have been turned down. There might be some people who think, ’What are we going to do?’ They might resort to poisoning."
Roy Kerr, who farms in Dumfries, says the buzzards are not only a threat to game birds. Roy, who has 15,000 layers, says the number of birds he loses to buzzards is increasing. How does he know buzzards are responsible for his losses? "They leave a perfect circle of feathers. It is completely different from what is left by a fox," he said.
"I have watched how the buzzards strike. It is fascinating. They don’t fly straight at the hen they have targeted. They drop out of the sky like a brick, heading for a piece of ground a little way off. Suddenly they then start flying horizontally just inches from the ground. They take the hen sideways. The hen is dead before it knows what has hit it. The buzzard picks the feathers off, so that it can get at the what it wants - it doesn’t like feathers. That is how you know it is a buzzard kill. You will just find a circle of feathers."
Roy said a buzzard could carry an adult away quite easily. "Hens do tend to be lighter now. A friend saw a buzzard fly past his window with one of his hens while he was in the middle of a supermarket audit."
He said the growth in the number of buzzards around Dumfries had been quite dramatic in the last 10 years. "You even see them sitting on top of the big road lights along the Dumfries bypass in winter. They must be keeping their feet warm. They can certainly see a long way from the top of there. And they seem to talk to each other, so that once one buzzard knows of a good spot they home in on it."
Roy said the buzzard had no natural predator - only the cars on the local roads. Fox-proof or electric fencing could control foxes to a certain extent, but there was no way of dealing with buzzards because they were protected.
The buzzard problem is not confined to Scotland. Mary Pipkin, treasurer of BFREPA, who has 7,500 layers on her farm in the foothills of the Cambrian mountains in Carmarthenshire, says buzzard numbers have been increasing there, too. "It is difficult to know just how many you lose to buzzards, but there is a problem," she said.
Mary said she had seen birds being attacked by buzzards a number of times. "I have been out in the fields and heard a scream. When I have gone to investigate I have found a buzzard pecking at a bird. Other people around have also had birds taken. And it is not just buzzards, but goshawks too," she said.
Mary said there had always been buzzards in the area, but numbers did seem to have increased. We have a breeding pair around here, as well as a breeding pair of red kites. How you stop them attacking the hens I don’t know. I think the hens are probably vulnerable in the open. We have planted a lot of trees. If the hens have some cover then perhaps they are protected a little bit. The problem you then have is that foxes will sneak up on them in the trees."
The fox has, of course, been the traditional villain of the peace. The revival of the buzzard may have provided it with a rival for the role.
